Storms on Trajaras

Giedi Prime

Giedi Prime, the lone planet of 36 Ophiuchi B, the second star of a binary system. The home world of House Harkonnen and, as a consequence, the evil pole of the Imperium’s moral dialectic. Named after a star: Alpha1 Capricorni, one can only assume that this was done to commemorate some historical event or relationship unknown to us. The name may have been motivated by another sort of symbolism: The Zodiacal constellation Capricorn is “the goat” and “Giedi” means the “kid of a goat.” This might be a comment on the habits of the Harkonnens, especially their sexual habits, carnality often being associated with that animal. Certainly the similarities between the goat and the Harkonnen’s coat-of-arms “griffin” is not to be denied. If one wished to gloss this over, one could say that the goat’s head was the arms of the barony; and the griffin, that of the family.